Winter once again

I fear returning to a Midwestern winter. I’ve become very soft over the past three years, living on a tropical island. Haven't checked a weather report once. The local TV news doesn’t even have a weather segment because the forecast is always the same – high of 87, low of 77, 60% chance of showers. I think during the dry season the chance of showers decreases to 20%. Every morning I get up, grab the next pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and I’m in business.

Three years ago in February 2007 we were enjoying our last day at my parents' home in Illinois. Around lunchtime the day before we were to begin our journey to Guam, a blizzard rolled on through the area. We were booked on Continental and we had to hit a single flight, leaving from Houston at 9AM the following day. If we didn’t make that flight, we would wait another 24 hours to catch the right sequence of flights to Guam. We had to take off from O’Hare Airport in Chicago at the ridiculously early hour of 5:45 AM to get to Houston on time, and my parents’ home was 2.5 hours away from O’Hare.

We called Continental and got them to change our flight to the last one leaving O’Hare for Houston the night before. We set off for O’Hare as soon as possible in our little rental car and ended up taking over four hours to get there. Our plane did leave later than expected, but we were in Houston the night before our big flight to Guam, where there was absolutely no snow.

Despite leaving for Guam only 12 hours later than our arrival in Houston, Continental would not let us check our bags back in for the flight. We had spent several weeks visiting friends in the cold Midwest after packing up our household goods, so my wife and daughter and I were all carrying two sets of clothes, one for winter and another for the tropics. We had 12 bags and a stroller. I was very disappointed.

We stayed overnight at the hotel attached to the Houston Airport, into which I wheeled our 12 bags and a stroller, and we all slept soundly on the king bed. The next morning, I wheeled the 12 bags and stroller through the airport again where I checked them. We endured two 8 hour flights, taking a two hour break to deplane and be inconvenienced at Honolulu. We arrived on Guam February 15, 2007. With the exception of a few business trips and vacations, we’ve been here ever since.

Seeing as how we arrive back at Chicago in mid-December, one of my most fervent wishes is that we don’t arrive into the same blizzard that we left from. It’s much more pleasant to go from winter to tropics; not looking forward to the other way around.